He nods. Headmistress Bunce walks us to the lift.
As we wait for it, Jamie says, “You don’t hear from her, do you, Mitali?”
“No,” she says quietly. “Do you?”
“Not once. My mum hoped that when he died…”
She nods. “Me, too.” The lift arrives. Headmistress Bunce looks at me.
“Simon, please tell my daughter not to leave Watford without me.”
Baz is waiting in the courtyard. With Penelope and her dad and Shepard.
Penny runs at me as soon as I walk out of the Tower, and wraps me in a tight hug. I’m just getting my arms around her when she shoves me away.
“What on earth were you thinking, Simon?!”
“Penny…” I say. Baz is just behind her. I reach for him. “Baz…”
His arms are folded, and his top lip is curled.
My wings flap out without my permission—it makes my cuts sting. “You guys can’t be mad at me about this.”
“Like hell,” Baz says. “You lied to us!”
“I wasn’t going to risk Smith casting that spell on you!”
“So you endangered yourself?” Penelope demands.
“He couldn’t hurt me!” I say. “I knew his spells would bounce off.”
“You couldn’t have known that, Simon.”
“Well, they did bounce off…”
Baz is still standing behind her, looking pale and furious.
“Baz…” I say.
“Are you hurt?” he asks.
“Only superficially; Penny’s mum cast a thousand spells on me to make sure. I’m fine.”
He shakes his head. “You lied to us, Snow.”
“I…” I did lie. But it was the right thing to do in the moment. I couldn’t risk either of them getting hurt. “I did what I had to do.”
“Oh, shit, ” Penelope says. She’s looking past me. Her mum is walking out of the Weeping Tower. Penny tries to head her off. “Dad,” she calls over her shoulder, “don’t let Mum cast on Shepard!”
Baz steps closer to me. There’s a line between his eyebrows. He’s unfolded his arms, only to put his hands on his hips. He doesn’t say anything.
“Did you get your wand back?” I ask.
His shoulders drop a bit. He looks down. “Yeah.” He runs one hand through his hair and sighs. I can’t tell what the sigh means or what he wants from me. “Daphne’s waiting for me,” he says. “I said I’d drive her home.”
“Oh,” I say. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, it’s a relief.” He looks up at me, without lifting his head. “Do you…”
“I’ve got to get Jamie home. He’s dead tired.”
“To Lady Salisbury’s?”
“Yeah.”
“She’ll be happy.”
“She will. Baz…” I start, not sure how I’ll finish.
He shakes his head again. “You can’t lie to me, Simon.”
“I—”
“Daphne is waiting for me,” he says. He turns to go.
79
AGATHA
Niamh wipes my hands clean, finger by finger.
The doe has nursed her kid. Niamh says they’re both doing well, though the mother is clearly exhausted.
“I wish we could take them back to the barn,” I say.
Niamh lowers an eyebrow, thoughtful. “Let’s try. I can carry the doe, with magic, if you can manage the kids.”
I turn to the first kid, still lying where I laid it in the grass. The dryad is hovering above it. She looks meeker than she did before, her head down, her mossy hair hanging in her eyes. “I’ll take care of this one,” she lilts softly.
“I’ll find a place for it to sleep.”
“All right,” I say.
“Ready?” Niamh asks me. She’s been ignoring the dryad; Niamh only has time for things that are useful.
I nod and pick up her bag. And then the little goat, the live one. Niamh lifts its mother in her arms and walks steadily back into the forest.
I feel like I should say something more to the dryad— No. I feel like I should say something to Ebb.
I look up at her stone marker. There are flowers growing all around it, vines winding up and around the marble. I didn’t notice that before.
The dryad is watching me from a few feet away.
I whisper to the stone: “I did what you told me to do. I ran.”
The dryad drifts closer.
I drop my voice even more. “Thank you.”